There is no doubt that the NFL has changed throughout its rich history in terms of players, teams, rules, and a bevy of other aspects, but the one constant has been the way they have tracked yardage through the chain gang on the sidelines. Starting in the preseason however, even that could be replaced as the league looks to test new technology measuring the line to gain.
According to what NFL Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Gary Brantley said to The Associated Press, they will be using Sony's “Hawk-eye technology” system and are already in the process of getting stadiums implemented to the system. On the other hand, while they look to test the new technology instead of the typical chain gang this preseason, it likely won't be implemented until next season.
“We’re in the installation phase for all of our stadiums, really getting them calibrated and up to date,” Brantley said. “We’re just really getting to a place where this system is as accurate as possible and really calibrating across our multiple stadiums. … We have multiple stadiums with multiple dimensions inside of those stadiums with different age. So we’re really just going through the installation of putting in the infrastructure and making sure these cameras are installed.”
The new Sony technology will be more accurate for NFL games than chain
This also comes off the news that Sony “was named the NFL’s official technology partner” Wednesday where their “Hawk-Eye tracking services for line-to-gain measurement adds cameras to stadiums to track players, officials and the ball.” Sony President and Chief Operations Officer Neal Manowitz talked about how the new system will positively impact future NFL games touting its “accuracy.”
“We’re reducing a significant amount of time, 40 seconds for each time of use that basically is making the game that much more impactful,” Manowitz said. “And then also the system is accurate down to less than half an inch, which is incredibly, incredibly accurate. Hopefully the fans appreciate the objective view, or at least half the fans each play will be appreciating it.”
“The NFL has incredibly high standards and really what we’re talking about in this relationship is together, at the highest level, how do we change the future of sports,” Manowitz continued. “How we change line to gain is a great example, and that’s where. … we get the creators of the game, all of the people of the ops team, the coaches, the players, how do we get that community as close as possible to our engineers, and how do we bring them and then ultimately provide a much better experience for fans.”
Per The Associated Press, the chain gang which uses two orange sticks and the self-titled chain will become a backup method if anything were to happen to the new technology. While there has been no word of when it will first be used, the first preseason game for the NFL is Thursday as the Houston Texans takes on the Chicago Bears in the Hall of Fame game.
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